An overhead view looking onto the fourth floor gallery.
Review and Photos by Andrea Valluzzo
NEW YORK CITY – If there are two things that are a sure bet about Antiques Week, it is that the week will be cold, often with a blizzard thrown in just to add to the fun, and that museum curators will descend en masse to compete for the rarest and the best pieces.
While private and institutional buyers did indeed flock to the New York Ceramics & Glass Fair to scoop up choice offerings, the mild, dare-we-say springlike, weather that marked the opening days of this niche fair, gave showgoers quite a treat. The fair opened with a preview on Wednesday, January 18, at the Bohemian National Hall under the management of Liz Lees and Meg Wendy. It presented a range of works from antiquity to contemporary from nearly 30 dealers, and ran through January 22.
From left to right are the fair’s publicist Marilyn White and co-managers Meg Wendy and Liz Lees.
A highlight of the show were the two loan exhibitions that were in the entrance lobbies as one alit from the elevators. On the fourth floor was “Private Thoughts: Beadwork Sculpture” by Leslie B. Grigsby, Chadds Ford, Penn., while the fifth floor space staged “Expression and Experimentation in Clay,” curated by Thomas Lollar, a professor at Teachers College/Columbia University,”
One standout item on display at the fair had no price tag and was not for sale, but as it revealed a breakthrough discovery in American ceramics, it attracted a lot of interest. Housed in a clear glass showcase by itself as one entered the fair’s main gallery on the fourth floor was an unassuming white punch bowl that had been put back together even though a few small pieces were missing. The Eighteenth Century punch bowl was excavated in 2014 on the site where the new Museum of the American Revolution was being built in Philadelphia. The museum is slated to open April 19.
First thought to be stoneware, the bowl underwent material analysis that determined it was made of hard-paste porcelain. While the Chinese perfected this technique in the Seventeenth Century, most Western potters were still trying to replicate the process into the Eighteenth Century.
Robert Hunter, editor of Ceramics in America, who gave a lecture on the bowl at the fair, said the search for physical evidence of making true porcelain in Eighteenth Century America has been frustratingly unsuccessful – until now. “The discovery of this bowl is like finding the holy grail of American ceramics, and is a thrilling addition to the history of the American effort to produce this coveted material.”
Rob Hunter, editor of the Chipstone Foundation’s annual publication Ceramics in America, displays the Eighteenth Century punch bowl that was excavated in 2014 on the site where the new Museum of the American Revolution was being built. First thought to be stoneware, the bowl was later determined to be hard-paste porcelain, likely made in Philadelphia. The bowl made its public debut here at the show and will return to the museum, which is opening April 19.
Recovered from among nearly 85,000 artifacts found on the site of the new Museum of the American Revolution by archaeologists from Commonwealth Heritage Group, the bowl was initially thought to have a stoneware body. However, subsequent material analysis by Dr J. Victor Owen, an expert on the geochemistry of archaeological ceramics and glass, and his colleagues revealed that the Eighteenth Century punch bowl is true porcelain that most likely was manufactured in Philadelphia.
Among the standout sales during the fair, of which there were many, was a rare pair of Russian Imperial Glass Factory vases made of thick and clear glass, engraved with cereus cactus in spirals of buds and leaves, from the booth of Jill Fenichell, Inc, Brooklyn, N.Y. The Corning Museum of Glass is reportedly in the process of getting in-house approvals for the acquisition. The nearly 18-inch-all vases, signed with the Imperial cipher and dated 1911, were bought from the estate of a couple who had acquired them decades ago thinking they were possibly French in origin. After much research and confirming the provenance with fellow experts, Fenichell concluded the pair was indeed Russian and had been made by Imperial Porcelain Factory at a time when the factory glassmakers were no longer content to create works imitating Galle but create their own aesthetic.
“As in porcelain, some of the forms of Russian glass vases are unusual. The choice of subject is unusual. Two unusual elements can kill an object, or make it better,” she said. In this case, the vases are rare survivors of the brief pre-Revolutionary moment when Russia stepped forward into the Art Nouveau on its own terms.
Several dealers were making their debut at the fair and were well received. Lacoste Gallery, Concord, Mass., reportedly had a good show and was impressed by the number of museum representatives that came through. The dealers sold two button boxes by Warren McKenzie, “Cylinder #5” by Bodil Manz and “Mountain” by Marianne Nielsen.
Newcomer Michael Wainwright, Great Barrington, Mass., sold his signature crystal slabs and reactive glaze bowls, while Antoinette’s Heirlooms, Warwickshire, UK, was said to have also gone home happy, while another first-timer, Lisa Battle, Rockville, Md., crafts sculptural pieces by hand exploring organic form, line and an undulating movement that is reminiscent of the sensual curvilinear grace of natural objects and landscapes.
Martine Boston Antiques, County Limerick, Ireland
Among other sales reported were Vetro Vero, West Grove, Penn., writing up hand blown glass pitchers, bottles, opaline bottles and goblets; Mark J. West, Surry, England, who notched a good opening night with interest from museums like the Corning Museum of Glass and Winterthur and had numerous sales of glass pieces. Leo Kaplan, Ltd, New York City, sold English pottery, circa 1740-80, priced from $1,000 to the mid-six figures.
Cliff Lee, Stevens, Penn., saw many new faces and did well selling to private collectors a carved celadon lotus vase and lava pots. Maria and Peter Warren Antiques, Sandy Hook, Conn., reported business was excellent and steady, selling a very large famille verte punch bowl, a rare Chinese export tea service, English creamware and a chintz teapot.
Robert Walker of Polka Dot Antiques, Waccabuc, N.Y., “had my best fair yet so far.” Historic Deerfield in Deerfield, Mass., bought two of his rarest items, including a triple -colored transfer printed salt glazed stoneware plate, 1756-60 (one of only five known to exist). “More importantly, they bought the unique hand-drawn estate plan of Thomas Whieldon’s estate dated 1794, only discovered a few months ago from the sale of a solicitors office that closed, the older contents being sold at auction. I could have sold this to several other museums, but Deerfield got there first. So glad that these are both going to a local museum.”
Among the dealer’s other sales were lead glazed “Landskip” wares; salt-glazed agate animals, early English delft wares and Moorcroft pottery.
Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates, Mount Crawford, Va., offered a collection of American pressed cable pattern glass, circa 1860, the Boston and Sandwich Glass Co., that was likely designed to commemorate the laying of the first Atlantic Telegraph Cable by Cyrus W. Fields and associates. He also showed an American Onion/Eaton translucent violet powder blue kerosene stand lamp, circa 1870 having a blown-molded vertical ribbed font joined by a brass connector to a matching pressed base, Boston & Sandwich Glass Co. and/or Atterbury & Co., 12 inches tall.
Robert Walker, Polka Dot Antiques, Waccabuc, N.Y., holds up a Willie Ruscoe figure, “The Victorian,” circa 1930s, England.
Michael Boroniec, Berkshire County, Mass., put together an attractive booth filled with gravity-defying pieces of ceramics that are part pottery, part sculpture, including his signature spiral and squiggle vases and works that almost look like one wrapped a ribbon around a round object and pulled straight up, leaving gaps of air in between the ribbons .except that the ribbon is ceramic and holds its place, frozen in time.
Highlights seen in the booth of Polly Latham Asian Art, Inc., Boston, included a choice pair of Kangxi yellow ground ginger jars with famille verte scrolling foliate decoration, circa 1700-20; a Kangxi period famille verte covered jar with alternating panels of painted floral decoration and a well-carved hardwood cover, circa 1700-20; a Chinese export famille verte ecuelle, or covered dish, in a rare form. The latter piece was likely inspired by European silver forms of the period and its porringerlike handles are quite interesting, all with Chinese decoration, circa 1700-10.
The fair will return here next January during Antiques Week.
For additional information, www.nyceramicsandglass.com or 929-265-2850.
